His Real Father (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Salonen, Debra

  Which made him wonder why.

  LISA PUSHED THE BINDER AWAY. She couldn’t concentrate on her notes and the study guide read like gibberish. She closed the book Grades, Grading and Statistics, and pushed back from her desk. Statistically speaking, she thought, my life sucks.

  Lisa had converted the spare room of her mother’s four-bedroom house into an office while she was majoring in construction. Each student had to complete a project as part of their final grade. Lisa had received an A-plus since her renovation had included adding the bay window where her desk sat.

  She dropped her chin to her chest and rolled her head from side to side. Her hair fell forward like a curtain. She’d intended to braid it and had forgotten. Another example of her inability to concentrate.

  Taking a deep breath, Lisa admitted that one reason she couldn’t stay focused was the fact that Joe was only a backyard away, possibly reading her business proposal. It seemed ironic that Joe had suddenly become such an important component in her life when for years she’d been able to push his existence into a tiny corner of her mind.

  “Knock. Knock.”

  Lisa’s chin snapped up. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and swiveled her desk chair a hundred and eighty degrees. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

  “I came through the gate. The back door was open. I called your name.” He held up her purchase agreement. “I knew you were anxious to talk about this, but if you’d rather I come back…”

  She jumped to her feet. “No. Now is fine. I was just taking a break. In fact, I’m done studying,” she said, impetuously. “If I don’t know it by now, tough.”

  His skeptical look said he didn’t buy her cavalier attitude, but his only comment was, “Nice room. I don’t remember seeing it before.”

  “Mom used to store all her junk here. When she moved into her wing, I converted this room into my office.”

  “Great view of the backyard. I’d probably spend the whole time watching the birds on that awesome feeder.”

  She didn’t tell him that she’d made it in her welding class, but his praise felt good. “Would you like a snack? How ’bout a smoothie?”

  “Sure. Sounds good.”

  He followed her into the kitchen, making small talk while she tossed fruit and ice into the blender. Only the loud growl of the motor kept her from asking about his decision.

  “Can we take these outside?” he asked when she was done pouring the thick pink liquid into two unbreakable goblets.

  “Good idea. It’s a gorgeous day,” she said, opening the patio door for him when he picked up both glasses. “I hope the weather stays this mild for graduation. Some of my classmates have family coming from out of state.”

  Joe took a sip of his smoothie, then licked his lips and said, “Very good. Sweet, but not too sweet, like the bottled kind.”

  Lisa smiled.

  He cocked his head and said, “Why do you call your fellow graduates ‘classmates’ not friends? Aren’t you close to any of them?”

  Lisa chewed on her straw a minute. She wasn’t sure how to answer. She decided to be truthful. “I have a few friends on campus. But I’m one of the oldest students in my class. Some of them come into the bar, but we don’t exactly hang out.”

  “Oh. So, who do you hang out with?”

  “My best friend is Jen McGraw. She used to be Jennifer Jensen.”

  “Jen-Jen?” he exclaimed. “Didn’t she marry Mac McGraw a month or so after graduation? You were in her wedding.”

  Lisa nodded. She’d been throwing up just minutes before it was time to walk down the aisle. Morning sickness, she’d come to find out.

  “She owns the beauty parlor we drove past the other day, right down from Joe’s Place.”

  A thought suddenly hit her and she sat up straight. “Oh, my gosh, what time is it? I’m supposed to get a pedicure today.”

  Joe looked at his watch. “A quarter after two.”

  “I have fifteen minutes.” She looked longingly at the stack of papers he’d set on the table. She wanted to stay and get this settled, but the pedicure was Jen’s gift to Lisa. “Um…can we do this later? I have to go.”

  “We could talk on the way,” Joe suggested. “Mom volunteered your car if I needed to go somewhere, and I’d like to check out the lighting inside Joe’s Place.”

  Lisa stood up. “Let’s go, then.”

  He took a big gulp of his smoothie first. He’d only taken one step when he suddenly let out a low moan and leaned forward, blindly reaching out. Lisa rushed to his side. “Joe? What’s wrong?”

  She slid under his outstretched arm to provide support. His weight was heavy, but familiar, just like his smell. She wrapped her arm around his waist and searched his face for a clue. “Are you okay?”

  His face was scrunched in a mask of pain. “Brain freeze.”

  It took a second for the answer to sink in. “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said, dropping her hold. She started to move away, but Joe’s grip on her shoulder tightened.

  He blinked twice then looked at her and smiled. “You came to my rescue. You’re my hero.”

  Lisa felt her face heat up. He was too close and this felt too natural. Their gazes met and something changed between them. She wasn’t sure what, nor was she certain she wanted to know. Not now. She dipped her shoulder to loosen his grip and backed away. “I have to get my purse.”

  “And I need my billfold. Don’t leave without me,” he called as he left.

  Lisa picked up the purchase agreement in one hand and the two sweating goblets in the other. A handwritten note was attached to the top page with a paperclip. She scanned it and her fingers went numb. Plastic tumblers fell. Peach-colored smoothie splattered across the concrete patio in every direction. Her knees seemed as substantial as the melting ice. She sat down in the chair she’d just vacated.

  “Works for me. One condition: my film. Finish first?” she read aloud.

  His shorthand confused her. Did it mean he wanted to complete his film before she took over ownership? How long would that take? Her window of opportunity was closing fast. If she didn’t act soon, she’d need to reapply for a loan, which meant more money out-of-pocket and a higher interest rate.

  She looked at the gate, which stood ajar. The fate of the bar was only one part of her dilemma. Joe’s presence was addictive. She liked flirting with him, even though she knew it was dangerous. The longer he stuck around, the harder it would be to keep her secret from him.

  And given Brandon’s current problems, she was terrified what the truth might do to her son.

  CHAPTER SIX

  JOE RELAXED against the shiny purple hairdresser’s chair and braced the soles of his sandals on the metal foot rung. Fortunately, the beautician named Marci, according to the license attached to the mirror, was off today, so Joe could observe—and film—Lisa getting a pedicure without bothering anyone.

  He watched the two-inch-by-four-inch LCD screen as he panned the room and provided a play-by-play. “This is Joe Kelly, roving reporter, coming to you today from Let Us Beautify You, the shop of one Jen-Jen McGraw. Tell us, Jen-Jen, how does it feel to work on the toes of such an esteemed graduate, the venerable Lisa Malden?”

  Jen, who looked about ten months pregnant, but claimed to be only six months along, cocked her head at Lisa and asked, “Doesn’t venerable mean old?”

  Lisa laughed. “He’s got that right.” She looked relaxed sitting in the oversize molded-plastic throne, which was equipped with two individual foot baths that bubbled like a witch’s cauldron. Cracking open one eye, she gazed at Joe. “Turn that off. A beauty parlor is like a psychiatrist’s office. What’s said here stays here.”

  Jen erupted in giggles. “Oh, that’s a good one, Lisa. Like anybody would believe that.”

  Joe had forgotten how much he’d liked Jen in high school. Cute and bubbly, she’d been one of those people who’d been part of the in-crowd without being popular. Sorta like Joe, who was present at all school functions bu
t, as now, he’d hidden behind a camera.

  Ignoring Lisa’s request to kill the taping, he asked Jen a few questions about life in Worthington.

  “My mom used to say, ‘The more things change the more they stay the same,’” she said. “I never realized what that meant until my kids started pulling the same stunts I did.” She shook her mane of artfully streaked hair. “Although today’s kids are way more advanced than I was. Yesterday, my twelve-year-old told me she needed twenty dollars to buy art supplies. I called her teacher. Not true. Turns out she wanted to buy sex bracelets.”

  Lisa opened her eyes and sat upright. “Like in S and M?”

  “God, no, but these are bad enough. If you wear one color, you’re telling people—boys—you’re interested in kissing. Another color says you’ll take it a step further, and so on and so on.”

  Joe zoomed in on Lisa, who sucked her bottom lip in and worried it with her teeth. Her attention was aimed at her friend, so he had free reign to study her. Pert nose. Not too big, not too cute. A few freckles, but hardly the masses one might expect with such a creamy complexion. She’d secured her hair in a twisted knot on top of her head, but wavy tendrils framed her face and neck like ribbons tumbling down the side of a package.

  He narrowed his focus on her neck. In high school, he’d made every effort to sit directly behind her so he could study the elegant shape of her neck. Regal. Something Greek sculptors would have fought over.

  “Joe?”

  He zoomed out to find her frowning at him. “Huh?” he said, lifting his gaze from the camera screen.

  “Jen asked if you had any kids.” Her voice was tight. He assumed she was tense about him taping her, so he panned the camera around the room, pausing at a leopard-print chair shaped like a high-heeled shoe.

  “Um, no, Jen. I’ve left that to the professionals, like you and Lisa.”

  “And you never married, either?” Jen asked. “Is that due to a fear of commitment or are you gay?”

  Fear of commitment? He’d been accused of that before. “Actually, I had a long-term relationship that didn’t work out, so I’m considering the gay thing.”

  Jen laughed. “Oh, man, you’re just as funny as you were in high school.”

  Funny? He’d been called worse.

  Jen pushed herself up from the small stool she’d been sitting on and walked to a portable cart loaded with small bottles of nail polish. “Pick a color while I use the little girl’s room,” she ordered. “My bladder shrunk during my last two pregnancies. It’ll be the size of a pea—no pun intended—by the time this babe is born.”

  Lisa, her feet resting on the outside edges of the now-empty basins, leaned forward to peer at her choices. “I hate this part,” she said. “I can never decide.”

  He set his camera on the counter and walked over to the cart. Nothing appealed to him on the top rack so he lowered himself to one knee. “Maybe I can help. I picked out your first earrings. Remember?”

  She blinked, her surprise obvious. “Yes, I do, but I have to admit, I’m a bit shocked that you do.”

  “Why? It was my first time in a beauty parlor. A boy always remembers his first time.”

  Her cheeks blossomed with color and Joe smiled. He loved to tease her, but in a way, he was serious. She had been the first girl he’d made love with. That night on the shore of the lake had been his first time. He’d never told her that. Or anyone. It was his secret. His guilty little secret. He’d saved himself for the woman he loved, only she belonged to his brother.

  “My, my,” an amused voice said, “this has a certain poetic nuance that a die-hard romantic like me just adores.” Jen waddled toward them. “You’re not proposing, are you? I mean, you can, of course, but I’d suggest something a little more romantic, like by the lake, or something.”

  Joe glanced at Lisa. Was his face as red as hers? He hoped not. To avoid Jen’s discerning gaze, he pretended to study the selection of colors and impulsively picked a dark pink. “Here,” he said, handing Jen the bottle before he returned to his seat.

  “Labyrinth of Love,” she read aloud. “I’ve been trying to get Lisa to try this one for months. She said it was too sexy.”

  Lisa scowled at her friend. “Don’t tell him all my secrets.”

  Jen laughed. “You mean like the white knight you’re still looking for?”

  Lisa groaned and covered her eyes with one hand. “Jennifer.”

  Intrigued, Joe rocked forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Details, Jen-Jen, details. Are we talking metaphorical or the kind on horseback?”

  “Oh, hell, she’d settle for one in an SUV. Unfortunately, the only guys Lisa seems to run across either have too much baggage or not enough.”

  Joe shook his head. “Huh? Explain.”

  “Do and I’ll never babysit for you again,” Lisa warned.

  When Jen hesitated, Joe said, “I’ll babysit. I’m good with kids. Really. Brandon likes me. Just ask Lisa.”

  Lisa made a so-so motion with her hand, but her smile negated its effect. Jen shrugged. “I bet my kids would love to hang out with a guy who makes movies. My twelve-year-old is certain she’s the next Olson twin.”

  Joe laughed. “So tell me what’s wrong with the men of the Central Valley that they let Lisa remain unattached. Are they blind?”

  “We call it dating-challenged,” Jen said, giving Lisa a wink.

  Lisa heaved a sigh. “There are a lot of good men out there. I’m sure of it, but they’re not looking for a woman who is a full-time student, with a teenage son and a mother like mine.” Her laugh sounded brittle. “Actually, the one guy I seriously considered keeping made a small blunder that I found out about—he slept with my mother.”

  Joe looked at Jen who nodded sagely. “Fortunately, Lisa found out before she’d slept with him. Can you imagine anything grosser than being in bed with a guy who could compare you to your mother?” She shuddered. “Of course, in my case, it might make Mac appreciate me more. Mom’s even more rotund than I am when I’m nine months pregnant.”

  Lisa smiled, but Joe could tell the experience still bothered her. He now understood what Constance had meant by her cryptic remark. “Do I want to know what happened to the jerk?”

  “He moved away,” Lisa said. “Never heard from him again.”

  Joe whispered, “Thank God,” under his breath.

  Jen waved her tiny painting wand. “I told Lisa this was good fodder for when she’s behind the bar.” Joe shook his head, so she’d know he missed her point. “In order to dispense advice, you gotta experience a bit of what the lovelorn are going through.”

  “I figure all the pain and disappointment Lisa’s had in her life will help her empathize with the people who hang out at Joe’s Place. You’re going to keep the name the same, aren’t you, Lisa?”

  “Absolutely,” Lisa said, but quickly added, “Um, you know it’s not a done deal, yet. Joe has certain strings he wants to attach to the agreement. Don’t you, Joe?”

  So she’d read his addendum. “Yes, I do. But, I think after you hear my offer, Lisa, you’ll agree that this is a win-win proposition.”

  She cocked her head. “I’m listening.”

  “We’ll have to repeat everything to Mom.”

  “Oh, don’t stop now,” Jen cried. “I love high-stakes business deals taking place in my establishment. Makes me proud to own a beauty parlor.” She looked at Joe and said, “Okay, let’s hear your plan.”

  Joe replaced the lens cover on his camera. His stomach felt as jittery as it had the last time he pitched a story idea for a producer. “We all know how popular the television show Cheers was. Quirky characters in a setting people could relate to. But what if I show them the real thing? Cheers without the actors.”

  Jen and Lisa looked at each other but neither said anything at first, then Jen asked, “Would you hire locals to act in it?”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of oral histories,” Joe said. “But first, I have to get permission fr
om the new owner to film inside the bar.”

  “Let him do it, Lisa. Please,” she said recapping the bottle. “He might need a grossly pregnant extra. This could be my one claim to fame.”

  Lisa started to say something, but Jen cut her off. “Stay put. You have to dry a few minutes. And I have a special little treat for the graduate. Don’t move.”

  Lisa leaned back in the chair. “No. Please. You do enough. You did enough. If it hadn’t been for your help when Maureen and Joe couldn’t watch Brandon, I never would have made it to half my classes.”

  Jen shrugged. “Brandon is a sweetheart. He used to keep my twerps out of trouble.” She paused. “Speaking of trouble, I heard some chatter from a couple of high-school kids about a big party coming up at the lake. Half a dozen kegs and hard liquor courtesy of someone with a parent in the bar business.”

  Lisa looked at Joe. “When?”

  “This weekend, I think. It could be just a rumor, but my daughter confirmed it when I jumped all over her case about the sex bracelets.”

  Lisa frowned in thought. “Maybe we should schedule an inventory to make sure all of our stock is accounted for.”

  “And invite Brandon to help,” Joe said.

  “Good idea,” Lisa said, directing her focus on him. “Maybe you could include that in the little talk we discussed this morning.”

  Jen looked from Joe to Lisa. “What’s going on? He’s only been in town a few days and already you have secrets?”

  Lisa lowered her voice and explained. “I talked to Brandon’s teacher this morning and she’s concerned that he’s not doing his work. Maureen and I thought Joe might be able to get through to him.”

  “Good idea. He’s reputedly quite cool.”

  “Reputedly?” Joe asked.

  “My son is a year younger than Brandon and he heard it on good faith that you once dated Mandy Moore.”